640 LIFE OF COBDEN. [oma

1888. illustrate the madness of our combative countrymen whe?
&r. 51. one can only turn with hope for peace to the coercion of 2
Bonaparte upon the deliberations of our Cabinet! I don
see how we can act with Gladstone in the broad advocacy ©f
non-intervention, so long as he professes to be an advocate
of the policy of invading Russia. He seems to put an
impassable gulf between us by that one argument, for
if anything is ever to be done again in favour of peace
principles, it must be by persuading the masses 8b
least to repudiate the very principle of the Russian invésion.
 , ,
“Oct. 5. (To M. Ohevalier.)—If war had not absorbed my
anxieties, I should have given all my sympathies to the great
industrial rivalry to which you have invited the nations of
the world. I should have thought of the Champs Elysées if
my attention bad not been unhappily so much distrast bY
the terrible scene which was exhibiting on the Champ 8
Mars. In fine, I deferred my visit to the Temple of Peace
until after that of Janus should have been closed. But I
fear that present appearances are against the realization of
my plan; and it is more than ever uncertain when I ghall
see you. Under these circumstances I shall trouble you
upon paper, instead of viyd voce, with a little unreserved
chat upon the subject of the war. .
“You will remember that we had some confidential
correspondence a few years ago, when the state of popular
feeling here towards your Government was the very opposite
to what it is now; and I have reason to know that that
correspondence had a favourable influence upon the relations
of the two countries, throngh the publication of those facts
and statistics which you gave me ; and I wish we could now
in a similar manner contribute to the restoration of the
peace of the world. When in 1852 I published in speech
and’ pamphlet my views respecting the ery of a ¢ French